The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-12-07
A GREAT MUTINY.

Queen BesS. In those days every packet
to Australia was crowded with emigrants,
soldiers and adventures, and on this oc-
cason our passenger list had a great
many of the latter. There seemed to be
regular hegira of bad men from Liver
pool and London about that date, and
I'll venture to say we had fifty aboard
who had no respect for the laws of the
land or the high seas.
was thirteen years old the day we
left Liverpool. and l had already made
one voyage to Australia and return with
Captain Flemming. While we carried
three cabin boys, I was engaged to wait
on the Captain alone. He was very kind
and fatherly to me from the first day
set foot on his ship, and l had much
pleasanter lot than usually falls to the
boy who takes to the sea for living. l
don't say that was any keener than the
average boy of my age, but somehow
when / came to look over our crowd as
We were about ready to sail saw trouble
ahead. Two or three trifing incidents
helped me to make up my mind to this.
Most of the sailors who had been the
other voyage had reshipped for this one.
There was one whom 1 positively hated
"a tall. evil-eyed, hang dog fcllow-and
on the night before sailing, as 1 was
doing an GRAND for the first mate, Mr..
Cotton, at public house near the dock,
saw this sailor and two evil-looking
landsmen in close conversation over their
ale. 1t so happened that l stood near
them while waiting, and heard one of
the men address the sailor with:
"Now, Bill, it is all understood"
eyes"
''If they come aboard we are to help
'em take the ship
"We are"
''The women and children and such
Others as don't care to Join us are to be
landed somewhere, and then for q free
and-easy life"
That's the talk, mate" exclaimed
Bill.
"And it is to be an even divide OF
cash all around9" put in the second lands
man.
1T is. We shall have to have officers,
of course, but one man will be as good as
another, and it shall be share and share
alike"
"Aud how many men have you
sounded2"
Bill spread his great, hairy hand on
the table and counted off on his fingers.
''Thcre's Jack-and Tom-and Rob
bins-and Whistler apd-but I guess
that's all. IT'S too early yet. When you
want man for desperate work don't
give him too long to think of it,
At this point I was called away, and
when returned to the ship went diect-
ly to the Captains cabin aud related all l
had heard. Some sea Captains, in their
arrogance and conceit. would have
covered me with contempt. Captain
Flemming listened to me attentivcly un-
til had finished, and then he sent me to
call Mr.. Cotton and Mr.. Johnson, the
latter being the second mate. I had to
repeat the conversation for their benefit.
Mr.. Cotton didn't take much stock in
my story. He was one of those opinion
ated men who never take kindly to any
thing coming second hand. Mr.. Rob-
inson believed | had overheard all said,
but secuted the idea that there was any
plan against the ship. They were Or
dered to keep their eyes open in every
direction from the hour we sailed, and
when they had gone the Captain turned
to me with:
"Now, Albert I am satisfied in my
own mind, from the character of some of
the passengers going out with us, that
plot of some sort is Matching. You can
come and 90 without suspicion. Begin
ming tomorrow, l want you to keep cir
culating through the ship. Keep your
eyes and ears open day and night and
you need do no other work. Whenever
you see or hear anything suspicious let
me know"
Most of the roughs and toughs came
aboard at the last hour. They had lots
of friends to take parting drink with,
and four-tif of them were the worse
for liquor. l stood at the gangway and
sized each one up as they came aboard,
and wondered greatly that the officers
didn't seem to notice what a rough
crowd they were. The fact that nearly
all of them seemed to know each other
was in itself a suspicious incident, at
least to my mind. / noted also, that in
the first hour of sailing many of the
toughs seemed TO be acquainted with a
round dozen Of our men before the mast.
From the hour OF sailing 1 was the
ghost of the ship. was engaged in a
work which interested my whole nature,
and was too excited to sleep more than
an hour at a time. While | had access
to every part of the ship, spent most of
my time either with the sailors in the
forccastle or the passengers in the
stcerage. l remembered the faces of the
two men l had seen with Bill in the
public house. and realizing that they
would be at the head of any plot, hung
around them like coast fever. We had
been out thirteen days Eeforc l picked
up single word, and by that time | had
almost made myself believe that | had
brought the Captain a cock-und-bull
story. In going among the steerage
passengers put on an old suit, and those
people supposed l had parents aboard
and was going to the new land. also
assumed trifiing way. and it was COM
mon enough to hear them say to each
other that was light in the upper s.ory.
| hu ig about the two men great deal
and as'I made them prescutS of toba co
aud ran errands for them, they never
drove me away. 1t was on the afternoon
of the thirteenth day that the men were
sitting on their chests, and pretended
to be asleep on Il bundle OF stuff near
them, that they were joined by three
other men. The five were quite by
themselves, and they had no sooner come